Are you sick of watching Netflix and eating everything in your house? Are you ready to give back and help communities locally and globally that are dealing with the effects of Coronavirus? Then let’s get virtual volunteering!
Coronavirus Specific Volunteer Opportunities
Call Seniors and Keep them Company ALONE’s Support & Befriending service provides companionship to older people who would like extra social contact through a weekly telephone call.
Contact your neighbors and extended family members. Check in and make sure the people in your life are well and have the supplies they need.
Zoom Trainer. Train Staff, Interns, etc to use Zoom to lead online classes for Homebound Seniors for Selfhelp Community Service's "Virtual Senior Center".
Open Source Mask Sewing Project. Crafty people around the world are making masks as a last resort for hospital workers and anyone else who needs added protection. Check out the Minnesota version of this effort here.
Contest to develop a rapidly deployable mechanical ventilation solution. If you have the technical skills a great challenge now is increasing the number of available respirators, work on this challenge to solve this issue.
Join the U.S. Digital Response for COVID-19 If you have relevant experience (healthcare, data, engineering & product development, general management, operations, supply chain/procurement and more), can work autonomously through ambiguity, and are ready to jump into a high-intensity environment join this effort to help government tech capacity at this critical time.
3D Printers Needed for Coronavirus Supplies. The 3D printing community is rallying and developing new innovations to help with the Coronavirus epidemic.
Help someone that is blind or low vision with everyday tasks. Be My Eyes is a free app that connects blind and low vision people with sighted volunteers for visual assistance through a video call. This is especially important now as many are cut off from essential services and support.
Volunteer with the Crisis Text Line. Crisis Text Line is the free, 24/7 text line for people in crisis in the United States. The service is powered by volunteer Crisis Counselors who work remotely — anywhere with a computer and secure internet connection works.
Check Idealist for new volunteer opportunities. There are new general and Coronavirus specific virtual volunteer opportunities listed everyday.
General Volunteer Opportunities
United Nations Online Volunteering program- The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme contributes to peace and development through volunteerism worldwide. Online volunteering allows organizations and volunteers to team up to address sustainable development challenges – anywhere in the world, from any device. Volunteer activities include translation, teaching, design work, and technology development.
Red Cross Digital Volunteer Program When disaster strikes, Digital Volunteers assist the Social Engagement team by:
Monitoring online conversations for disaster-affected people who may need Red Cross help
Sharing important disaster updates and resources through their personal social media accounts
Offering a compassionate voice to people who have been impacted
Smithsonian Transcription Volunteer Become a Smithsonian Digital Volunteer and help us make historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible. Join 14,834 "volunpeers" to add more to the total 516,657 pages of field notes, diaries, ledgers, logbooks, currency proof sheets, photo albums, manuscripts, biodiversity specimens labels that have been collaboratively transcribed and reviewed since June 2013.
Add women scientists to Wikipedia. Only 18% of the 1.6 million biographies in the English Wikipedia are about women. The figure is lower for people tagged as scientists – 16% of almost 150,000 articles. There are now focused efforts to change that.
Join a crowd powered research project. The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Our goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise.
Proofread a book for an effort to get historical books online. You can help proofreading new eBooks by joining the Distributed Proofreaders team. You will proofread one page at a time, as many as you like, as often as you like. Use the DP forums to communicate with your fellow proofreaders.
Help Harvard Researches Measure Implicit Bias Here you will have the opportunity to assess your conscious and unconscious preferences for over 90 different topics ranging from pets to political issues, ethnic groups to sports teams, and entertainers to styles of music. At the same time, you will be assisting psychological research on thoughts and feelings. Sessions require 10-15 minutes to complete.
So get off the couch and get back on the coach to volunteer virtually.